SPS Confirms Milosevic Legacy

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 002039 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958:N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL SR SUBJECT: SPS Confirms Milosevic Legacy REF: A) Belgrade 1960; B) Belgrade 1927; C) Belgrade 1873 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Milosevic's once-dominant Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) will probably eke across the five percent threshold in Serbia's upcoming January 21 parliamentary elections. A party congress earlier this month revealed continued disarray, with "moderates" winning a tough fight for the leadership and supporting a campaign message that blends hardline rhetoric on Kosovo with a pledge to continue working closely with PM Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). Any post-Milosevic soul searching will have to wait until after the elections. For now, the SPS will have to focus on revving up its party machinery to ensure it crosses the participation threshold and remains politically relevant. End Summary ¶2. (SBU) In a thirteen-hour marathon session on December 3, the SPS elected Ivica Dacic, the head of the erstwhile moderate faction in the party, to be the new head of the SPS. Dacic quickly moved to shore up party unity ahead of the elections by pandering to the party's hardline base, including supporting military action in Kosovo, slamming The Hague Tribunal, and affirming Milosevic's legacy. Hedging his bets, he also voiced open support for the DSS and Kostunica, and SPS willingness to continue their cooperation with the DSS during the next government. The runner up in the leadership contest, traditional hardliner Milorad Vucelic, a loyal Milosevic supporter and former vice president of the party, hardly seemed with the program, revealing links between Dacic and criminal tycoon Predrag Rankovic, the source of some of the financial support for the SPS. While leading pollsters suggest that the SPS will probably cross the threshold, the party will face an uphill battle to mend internal fences and kick their parliamentary campaign into high gear. Socialist Party Congress Maintains Hardline Stance -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) In the run-off vote for the leadership, the over two thousand Socialist party delegates from throughout Serbia elected acting president Ivica Dacic as the first--and only other--party president since the death of Milosevic. In the first round, Dacic was supported by 1089 delegates while Milorad Vucelic, a staunch Milosevic loyalist, garnered 633 votes. Former secretary general of the SPS Zoran Andjelkovic (309) and old guard communist Petar Skundric (196) rounded out the list. Dacic ultimately defeated Vucelic in a second round of voting 1287 to 792, but then appointed Vucelic and his other opponents to the Party's main board. ¶4. (SBU) With the media speculating heavily about the party's survivability after Milosevic's death before the long-postponed Congress, the event largely exploited messages of the past, including Milosevic's legacy, Kosovo, and the Hague Tribunal. While there were fewer pictures than in the past, the SPS had a number of large photos of Milosevic plastered around the convention. The SPS adopted a Resolution on the Historic Role of Slobodan Milosevic that states, "Milosevic is a part of history, but also a part of the present and future. There shall be no discontinuity." Ultimately, the congress proved to be more of the same, and ensured that the Socialists will continue to espouse the image and messages of Milosevic throughout the campaign. ¶5. (SBU) On Kosovo, Dacic raised the stakes by suggesting the possibility of war again to defend Kosovo "with all available means." However, after being pressed about this statement during an interview on the B92 television program Polygraph, Dacic recanted, saying "Don't worry. Even if we wanted to go to war we have nothing to go to war with." The Socialist also added to the anti-Hague rhetoric, chiming in on the Radical-led campaign in support of Seselj and arguing that there should be no extraditions to the Hague because "those that defended the country are heroes, not criminals." Presiding over a party riddled with contradictions, Dacic appears content to try to appeal to both party moderates and hardliners in the campaign, waiting until after the SPS is voted back into parliament to begin the changes necessary to remold the SPS into a leftist, social-democratic type of party that can survive on the Serbian political scene. ...and Supports the DSS -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In the only surprise of the congress, the SPS underscored its continued support for Kostunica and his policies. Kostunica gave the SPS a boost in 2003 by making them the kingmaker for his government, a role that paid the SPS handsome dividends in the government's constant "negotiations" to retain SPS support. Kostunica told the Ambassador privately at one point that, while he BELGRADE 00002039 002 OF 002 would never join forces with the Radicals, he thought the SPS offered an acceptable left of center option for the Serbian electorate -- and that he was not opposed to forming a coalition with the SPS in the future. SPS leaders have argued that support for the DSS and Kostunica have allowed the Socialists to keep the nemesis DS from being in government, a key goal. Dacic additionally stressed that the new constitution would not have been adopted without DSS and SPS support, linking the SPS to the "national project" successes of the Kostunica government, including the constitution and protecting Kosovo within Serbian borders. COMMENT: SPS Struggling to Define Itself -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Already early in his chairmanship of the party, Dacic faces a number of concerns over party unity, campaign messages and behind-the-scenes undermining of his leadership by his opponent Vucelic. Although Dacic tried to distance himself from Milosevic after the latter was extradited to The Hague and Dacic was made the party's acting president and head of its main board, Dacic now appears to be trying to capitalize on the legacy of Milosevic to unify the party--and the party base--ahead of the elections and a decision on Kosovo. Dacic is probably unwilling to radically alter the party platform only weeks away from the election for fear of losing what little support the party has. Polls currently have the SPS hovering near the threshold but major pollsters predict they will make it into parliament given their supporters' high level of loyalty and discipline. Already losing voters to the extremist platform of the Radicals, Dacic may try to reform, modernize and moderate the party after January 21, but for now, he is aiming to boost momentum for the party heading into the parliamentary elections primarily by one-upping Radical Party nationalist rhetoric in an attempt to lure back the hardline base. ¶8. (SBU) Vucelic, meanwhile, will continue to resist any effort to moderate the SPS message pre- or post-elections. He is a die-hard Milosevic loyalist, having worked as the head of RTS, Milosevic's propaganda machine, in the early 1990's. Vucelic, a vice president of the party before the congress, believes that Milosevic's name will still garner votes in Serbia, but he is also probably more concerned with keeping power, and any money flow, for himself than moving the party forward. Not long after the party congress ended, our sources reported that there are now allegations that Dacic was "heavily financed" by gambling kingpin Predrag Rankovic a.k.a. Peconi, who owns a number of gambling centers in and around Belgrade. In an effort to "legalize" his money, Rankovic has been buying businesses and likely plans to use the SPS to get into politics by providing them with much needed financial assistance. Rankovic supposedly provided a great deal of financial aid directly to Dacic, who used the money to ensure his resounding victory as head of the SPS. In retaliation for his loss and marginalization within the party, Vucelic has reportedly leaked the Rankovic story to the press to undermine the SPS--and Dacic--and prevent the party from crossing the threshold. POLT